Responds to an article that presents research (Kellerman & Yoshioka, 1999) on case drop in Japanese involving Dutch-speaking second language learners and claims there was no evidence their subjects had access to the Empty Category Principle (ECP). This claim is counter to those presented in Kanno (1996) and (1998). Reexamines Kellerman and…

This article addresses the debate on the causes of variability in production of second language functional morphology. It reports a study on article production by first language (L1) Serbian/second language (L2) English learners and compares their behaviour to that of a Turkish learner of English, reported in Goad and White (2004). In particular,…

A test of a hypothesis about the availability of Universal Grammar principles to adult language learners involved testing predictions about acquisition patterns in Hebrew speakers learning English as a Second Language. Results supported the view that second-language acquisition is a process of parameter reassignment of principles that are indeed…

Presents evidence from the grammaticality intuitions of native speakers and English-speaking second language (L2) learners of Hungarian about optional and categorical constructions. Argues that while observed, stable native optionality is highly restricted and difficult to capture. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' knowledge of the locative alternation and its relationship to theories of language-particular and language-universal properties. Results are discussed with reference to universality of linking, to the transfer of argument structure, and to Pinker's learnability theory. (Author/VWL)

An exploratory application of the "acquisitional strategies" framework investigated English-speaking language learners' acquisition of preposition stranding in Dutch. Interesting syntactic and morphological contrasts in both English and Dutch render the framework a valuable empirical tool for evaluating language acquisition strategies. (Author/CB)

Investigates whether Universal Grammar (UG) is accessible to adult language learners. Advanced Korean adult acquirers of English were given a test of grammaticality judgements on English "wh-" sentences, where the relevant constraints are thought to derive from principles of UG. Clear UG effects were found. Sample instruction sheet given…

Discusses the various components necessary for a formal model of the acquisition of the prosodic phonology of a second language and reports on empirical investigations of the acquisition of English metrical parameters by native speakers of Polish, Hungarian, and Spanish. (50 references) (MDM)

Presents a detailed study of the second-language (L2) acquisition of English aspect by native speakers of Slavic languages. Results bring new evidence to bear on the theoretical choice between direct access to the L2 value or starting out the process of acquisition with the first-language value of a parameter, supporting the latter view.…

In a study of first-language transfer and second-language (L2) acquisition of reflexive binding, the interpretation of English reflexives by native speakers of Serbo-Croatian was investigated using two types of written sentence comprehension tasks. Results support the transfer hypothesis and suggest learners have access to Universal Grammar in L2…

Analyzes data on the acquisition of German by Italian and Spanish speakers. Findings reveal that children learning a first language and adults learning a second language build up syntactic structure in much the same manner, and propose that the weak continuity approach of language acquisition accounts for all instances of syntactic acquisition.…